Re: belts: the Judo dojo where I trained in Japan had no coloured belts or stripes for adults. After a few years of solid practice as a white belt, you went for Shodan. As this was my first time seeing this, I asked about it and the Sensei said that coloured belts had been invented for kids and that, in his opinion, adults had little business wearing them. He'd never heard of stripes.

Re: belts: the Judo dojo where I trained in Japan had no coloured belts or stripes for adults. After a few years of solid practice as a white belt, you went for Shodan. As this was my first time seeing this, I asked about it and the Sensei said that coloured belts had been invented for kids and that, in his opinion, adults had little business wearing them. He'd never heard of stripes.

I thought the judo belt coloring system was put together to help rank for competition level.

Jeremy M. Talbott

Originally Posted by Phrost

"Bullshido isn't just a place to hang out when you're browsing the net. We really are trying to accomplish something fucking extraordinary here that nobody's ever had the balls to do before."

Originally Posted by D.Murray

"Which is better, to learn the truth, or to enjoy the illusion of being right when you are not?"

Originally Posted by hangooknamja88

My definition of Ki is our energy. it's rather hard to explain it in words. It's not some mystical type of energy like white people...

Can't help you there cuz vegetarian. Wife is Japanese, tried whale-meat once--it was fed to her in elementary school at lunch. Said it was nasty and never had any again. Funny thing...it's a whaling country, but most Japanese have either never had it, or tried it once and weren't impressed. So much for "scientific research".

I thought the judo belt coloring system was put together to help rank for competition level.

Meh.

When you have white, and then black, what other belts--if any--are needed?

There are a lot more benefits to TKD than what you have mentioned, but I agree the only way to become a good fighter is to fight. It doesn't matter what system you study, if you want to be a fighter, you have to fight.

Tae Kwon Do is meant to improve life. It improved my general attitude at a turning point in my life. Tae Kwon Do made me a better (at least more well-rounded) fighter. There is no single be-all, end-all system, but Tae Kwon Do contains some real solid fundamental movements and if trained seriously can be viable.

TKD has evolved a branch of performance. One branch is seen as performing arts.

The Korean Tigers are performance art and nothing to do with fighting. They are pretty boys and girls and are pretty much the entire reason the stupidity of "Taekwondo dance" even exists and why so many dojangs promote it instead of actual martial arts. Performance art is not martial arts its why I stopped training under a Chinese Shaolin Master recently, because he was teaching dance wushu crap and avoided sparring or pad work with me.
Anyway Taekwono in itself that is about fighting, when trained well looks good enough and cool enough for demos. We don't need performance art or "taekwondo dance" I hate what the Korean Tigers represent. When I was a teenager when i first heard of them I thought they were some badass fight team from Korea, but over the years realized they just pose and do stupid shows with music.